Conventionally, computer (e.g., electronic) files are stored on computer-readable media such as, for example, electromagnetic storage media, optical storage media, magneto-optical storage media, etc. Recent advances in biotechnology, however, have made it possible to store information on new types of storage media such as, for example, DNA-based storage media. However, current DNA-based storage technology suffers from several disadvantages.
For example, one major disadvantage of current DNA-based storage technology is that it provides for storing only a very limited number of constructs (i.e., only address and content) on any given DNA oligonucleotide (oligo). Thus, the current DNA-based storage technology suffers from at least the following problems: (1) it provides for storing only one file at a time, which is not practical; (2) it is limited to files of a very small size (˜700 KB), due to the inefficiency of encoding; (3) it involves a high probability of error, due to the lack of redundant bases and error correction; (4) it uses either uniform encoding of all parts of a target file (which allows for encoding errors to impact the whole content of the file) or, alternatively, it uses increased coverage that provides redundancy by encoding the same information onto large number of oligos (which makes the use of the technology less economically feasible); (5) it is not economical for large files and, more generally, for large blocks of information; and (6) it requires expensive DNA sequencing, due to the requirement of high coverage stemming from the error-prone nature of the encoding processes.